A Public Apology ...

 It is quite the momentous occasion when I publicly admit I may have been wrong

and when it comes to toothbrushes I actually may have been a bit judgemental

because I have always thought that any sort of mechanized toothbrush is kind of silly

that they are one of those things dreamed up by savvy marketers

and as such were only to be used by the gullible or the terminally lazy

I mean how lazy do you have to be to not move your arm when you are brushing

but turns out I may have been a bit hasty in my assessment

We recently headed up to the coast for a week or so

and in the normal tried and true packing fashion that we have perfected

all packing was done an hour before we were due to leave

and I am talking all clothes, food, dog and dog necessities, the whole shebang

we don't even get out the bags until we are getting close to leaving time

As you can imagine this leads to some rather odd items being packed and forgotten at times

which is all part the fun of a break I think

and had led to us now owning about 20 packs of playing cards

 plus there was one memorable holiday where a certain member of the family

forgot to pack underwear ... seriously ... 

which has led to that holiday being referred to as the Commando holiday

This holiday the packing went smoothly until I realized that I had forgotten my toothbrush

no biggie, Sinus popped down to the shops to buy me one

and promptly came back complaining the cost of things in holiday towns

and that it is bad form to rip off tourists etc... a good old rant as he handed it over

$11 for a toothbrush... give me a break... is this thing gold plated or something

now this is the man whose underwear debacle set us back a whole lot more than that

especially as it turns out the Sinus is particularly choosy about his underthings

but it turned out not to be a gold plated toothbrush, but rather the dreaded battery one

which had been the subject of many rants by yours truly

though it does explain the $11... think it was actually a bit of a bargain

because it turns out this thing is amazing

my fangs have never gleamed so much or felt so clean

and so I am publicly apologizing for all prior aspersions cast upon their character

and I am a total convert

And while there is still some puzzlement as to Sinus not noticing

that the toothbrush weighed three time more than a normal toothbrush

or that it has the fact that it was battery powered plastered all over it

it all tuned out for the best

and with that I am off to brush my teeth until they gleam

then settle into some wonderful Sunday studio time ... xx

Linking up with Sunday Sketches

and the links to my last two posts are below ...

Things To Worry About ...

Call Me Gnat Girl ...

Things To Worry About ...

It has started out as a surprisingly great day

well as great as any day can be when you are up at 5.30 am

but early start aside

I have finished the painting of Manon's tea tin which has been on my desk all week

and I didn't go mad painting the patterns on the red tin like I feared I might

I have a whole morning free and clear to paint to my heart's content

and I am snot free which means I am no longer thinking that I am dying

the only thing is that with that worry gone it seems to have opened the floodgates

and I spent about two hours lying in bed last night worrying about all sorts of other things

Now don't judge me because remember it was late and I was sleep deprived

but here are some of the things I was worrying about....

That I couldn't remember where the thing is that I need to send with the other thing

that I couldn't remember the other day, or was it last week

That if they keep breeding smaller and smaller mini horses that they might make one small enough to be classified a tea cup horse ... like a tea cup poodle

and then we might see celebrities carrying them around in carry bags

that perhaps one of those blanket things with sleeves isn't such a bad idea

What if the Kardashians are on tv forever

or if there was a world wide tea shortage and I only have a stockpile to last maybe a year

then I remembered the thing was behind the big box in the cupboard behind the doodad

and considered if the guy who played McGyver is looking old, does that mean that I am also

I then worried that the avocado painting that I did earlier was lacking in structure

which took hold so bad that I actually got out of bed and came down and checked on it

at which point I decided that I was going around the twist

and would go and read until I was sleepy

But that led to its own hassles as I just finished a book earlier

and should I start a new one at 1 am???

and which book do I start... do I just read the next one on the pile

or do I pick something quick because the next China Mielville book is due to arrive

which necessitated me sneaking around the study/library

with my phone acting as a torch to try to find a suitable book

which woke up the dog who came to see what I was up to

though when I asked him what book he thought I should start next he was no help

 which was a low point so I headed back to bed with a few books

though didn't read any

because I was busy wondering what the dog would sound like if he could actually speak

I kind of think Mushu would sound like yoda or a surfer dude

which is the last thought I can remember before being being woken by my alarm

the upshot of it all is that I woke up this morning with the imprint of two novels in my face

but managed to find the thing that needed to be sent with the other thing

and I finished Manon's tea painting

so maybe a bit of evening worry isn't a bad thing

though it did get me wondering what sort of things keep other people awake at night????

Linking up with Paint Party Friday

and

Paper Saturdays ...xx

If you have missed some posts this week

here are the links ....

Just Call me Gnat Girl ...

Snot Face Sketches ...

Just Call me Gnat Girl ...

So Why Gnat Girl you may ask 

well basically I have come to understand that I have the attention span of a gnat

of course this is assuming that gnats have a poor attention span

for all I know they may have super hero type focus powers

but I am assuming that the cliche is a cliche for a reason

and all this kind of reinforces what I am trying to say because

I obviously have a distraction issue

I had every intention of spending the early part of the week

happily getting the painting of Manon's amazing tea tin finished

after it had been so rudely interrupted by last week's snot attack

or maybe even complete a couple of the other million drawings I have on my desk

but then a Zeta sketchbook from Stillman and Birn arrived in my hands

courtesy of the uber wonderful Dion Dior which meant that I had to try it immediately

I was beyond excited to see Dion's painting on the front cover

and in the space of time it took me to get the wrapping off it

all my good intentions of finishing work I had started flew straight out of my head

I have been obsessing about the thought of smooth white heavy paper in sketchbook form

and was a touch worried that I had built it up in my head to be crazy perfect

and that it would fall short in reality... 

but I have to say this is one very cool paper and sketchbook

I threw everything but the kitchen sink at it

and the only reason I didn't throw the sink at it is because it is full of dishes

I used pen, ink, watercolour, and gouache in multiple washes

I even managed to leave a water well pen on the page and it leaked on the page

but there still no buckle, and the paper is gloriously and perfectly white

I think I have found a sketchbook that can stand up to my haphazard way of working

So now my Zeta obsession has been momentarily satisfied

I can put Gnat Girl to rest for a little while and get busy on my desk full of work ...xx

My last two posts links are here ...

Snot Face Sketches ....

A Few Things That Suck ...

Snot Face Sketches ...

Just call me Snot face... I deserve it and it is totally fitting at this time

 even though it has sort of slowed for me it has now spread to other members of the house

so it has become a snot festival of epic proportions around here

which is leading to a severe lack of studio time

but I have done a few little sketches in one of my sketchbooks

both of which were great fun to do

even if I completed them with tissues stuffed into my nose

which looked decidedly unglamorous but did the trick so well

that I considered repeating it while I went to pick up Phantom form school

lucky for her Sinus Man picked her up on Friday afternoon

but sort of disappointing for me as embarrassing her always lifts my spirits

The first sketch is this Swedish Easter drink that I got from IKEA the other week

Cute package and suitably and gloriously odd taste

to go with the odd rabbits on the package perhaps

but having it on the table added to the fun of Easter enormously

I can't quite describe what it tastes like

but sort of like root beer or sarsaparilla with a shot of bitters

not unpleasant at all, but different 

mind you not pleasant if you taste it just after washing your teeth

and I know nothing tastes good with that shot of minty freshness

but this stuff became decidedly wrong with a toothpastey mouth....

The other sketch of the last few days

is of a lovely surprise gift from a wonderful friend

Vonny K sent me this lovely dangle for my bag

and it has charms of all my favourite things

except for George Clooney, but I'm not so sure such a wonder exists

but all my other favourite things are represented

like painting, tea, books and cake

it is awesome isn't it and hangs in my studio

reminding me just how wonderful friends are ...

So armed with a box of tissues and a pot of tea

I am heading back into the studio to get painting on Manon's tea tin

which has not progressed one little bit in days and is totally driving me nuts

so my snot and I are going to get busy on it now

Happy Sunday Sketches all ... xx

P.S  I just found out that Manon's Paper Saturday is any work on paper
so am linking up with this new event as well...... xx

The last post links are here ...

A Few Things That Suck ....

Syrup Season Part 2 ....

A Few Things That Suck ...

 Now let me start by saying these Peerless paints don't suck

not one little bit, in fact they are the definition of the opposite of sucking

what does suck is that I have the flu, or mega hay fever, or some such snot filled monstrosity

and I am not getting to play with them

I am not the best person when I am sick, and do tend to think that I am possibly dying

at the first sign of a runny nose, but this time I was in danger of actually drowning in the stuff

so I haven't been exaggerating at all

and let me tell you that amount of snot does suck .... big time 

What also sucks is that it wasn't over in a day like I expected, or even in two

and the snot rages on in a very unattractive manner

so the paints are lying neglected and deserted

and my earlier in the week drawing frenzy sits neglected

which especially sucks as I started doing a painting for Manon

 based on a photo of her Dutch tea she posted on facebook and sent me

and I really want to get some paint on it ... the sketch is screaming for paint

but I don't want to risk ending up with snot in the paint, so it waits forlornly

Even bigger suck is that I made cupcakes yesterday afternoon

in teacup cup cake thingies no less

while I was being uncharacteristically optimistic about my speedy recovery

and I thought I would be catching up with my great friend Tracey Grigc Potter today

and Trace would hugely appreciate these little beauties

and I haven't seen her in weeks so that sucks as well

but alas I am still a bag of snot so a visit is being pushed back to next week

so the cakes are being scoffed by Sinus and Phantom and they totally don't appreciate them

And talking of Phantom

turns out she sucks as a hand model

just getting this photo took forever and then much cropping

I actually believe that the dog may have done a better job

despite the lack of opposable thumbs

So despite being on the mend sort of

 I am heading back to Blanket Bay to watch crappy daytime TV 

and feel thoroughly sorry for myself and the tea party that never was

and the painting that isn't getting done

Happy snot free paint party Friday to you all ...xx

Here is a less snotty posts for you in case you missed it ...

Syrup Season Part 2 ...

Syrup Season Part 2 ...

A couple of posts ago I painted a Golden Syrup bottle

and had a bit of a crack up that I couldn't find the one that I loved which was in an awesome tin

well I found the tin and finally finished painting it up

and it was great fun

as much fun as I thought it would be actually and it was totally worth hunting down the tin

well except for the lion

I seriously think he looks like some weird mutant lion

but what the hey I have never said I could draw animals

In fact I happily admit that any drawing I do of an animal

will have absolutely no recognizable features

I recently tried to draw a cow that was on the front of a yogurt container

and it looked weirdly like a dog crossed with an elephant who had lost its trunk

and no I'm not sharing it because when I shared it with the family

they thought it was one of the funniest things they had ever seen

and I had endless jokes about what sort of fantasy mash up animal I was trying to draw next

and I have only just gotten them off that train of teasing and am not risking its return

So here are the two syrup containers side by side

and to me it is no contest whatsoever as to which I should use

I know they both taste delicious

but dipping a spoon into that wonderful tin adds a certain something extra

Yes a squeeze bottle is more practical

and levering that tin lid off necessitates a rather unlady like lunge

to catch the sucker before it shoots off the edge of the bench

but it is the syrup of my childhood and the tin is just too appealing to not use it

I painted this one into a sketchbook which has sort of morphed into a food theme

and now there are quite a few pages completed I sort of feel like I need to continue

which is a touch stressful because it is a bit too organised for me

and my other sketchbooks have a painting of some avocados happily next to shoes

and that haphazard approach has always worked for me

but maybe it is time to attempt to give it a shot

But the theme sketchbook issue aside I have been in a drawing frenzy this morning

and really want to get back to it, I love it when ideas are spillling onto the page

not to mention now I have finished and posted this I can crack the tin

and finally eat some of this luscious stuff

after all I am going to need the sugar high to get through the rest of the day in the studio

hope you are all having a fabulous creative day...xx

The last few posts have been a bit sparse but here are the links ...

21 Years and 1 Day ...

Sacking The Cleaning Fairies ...

21 Years and 1 Day ....

I know that I said I was going to be absent online due to cleaning

but we headed up the coast to the beach

for a good old break away to get ourselves in the mental space needed

to attack the monumental reorganization that the house needs

and ended up staying a bit longer than we had originally planned

despite the fact that it absolutely bucketed with rain the whole time

in fact that was kind of nice

basically we sat around read books, chilled out, napped

drank tea and I even did a bit of painting of the amazing present I got for Easter

which was a wonderful Tea forte set from one of my favourite haunts, Susan's

and even though I couldn't bring it with me which meant the colours were a touch off

it was nice to fill in the line drawing I had done before leaving

and outside of that we did bugger all which was truly magnificent

I had had grand plans for doing a bit of sketching and painting at the beach

but it really was bloody awful weather

and I am not such a hardy soul that I would head out into rain to paint

so I did some little sketches in my sketchbook using a magazine as inspiration

and discovered there is such a thing as wine flavoured tea in the US of A

I am kind of becoming obsessed at the thought of it

though I am a tad worried it will turn out like the chocolate flavoured tea debacle

and be all sorts of wrong

but I am hoping someone out there has given it a try

and can tell me how it is and save me from obsessing about it

So here we have holiday highlights

spectacularly bleak skies

wet as a shag mutt

sandy flip flops

 and a rather cold pool

but on the plus side I sent Sinus off to take some shots of the beach for me

as I am too precious to get wet remember

 and he did a sterling job... like really freakin sterling

so it turns out that my wonderful husband of 21 years and 1 day has quite the artistic eye

and it is an awesome thing that after all this time he can still surprise me

and nice he took all of these on our anniversary... very cool way to remember it

Less fab is that he has started constructing cabinets as I type which means the pressure will be on for me to start culling and sorting

which is enough to make me wish I was back at the beach even if it is still raining

Happy Paint Party Friday all ...xx

Sacking the Cleaning Fairies ....

The time has come to sack my lazy ass, unreliable cleaning fairies

they have not turned up time and again

and when they do finally turn up they seem to do a rubbish job

as evidenced by the house being not quite pristine before Easter

but also in the fact they are still off partying or sunning themselves somewhere

and I have been left with a house that is looking decidedly worse for wear

especially after the celebrations of the four day long weekend

 with its various visitors, million and one meals and the all important chocolate fest

so I am firing their no good fairy butts and getting in and doing a big Autumn clean

An Autumn clean is a perfect thing

the absence of  humidity means that I can no longer use the relentless heat as an excuse

added to that we have been slowly but surely ikea ing our lounge room

which upon removal of the old tv cabinet thingies, led to the rather concerning discovery

that we had been playing host to the randiest set of dust bunnies ever

they had obviously been procreating like mad

and had pretty much reached plague proportions under there

and once the shock of that subsides we will start on the guest room

so there is now, and will be, an abundance of cupboards and storage

and all this shuffling requires a clean anyway

so the time has come to pop on my big girl pants and clean this sucker

It is also Easter break so I have a not so willing slave in Phantom

and as Sinus is also taking a bit of a break I will be putting him to use

not just just as Ikea flat pack assembly god

but also as a heavy cleaning dude... he will shine in both roles I am sure

and it is not just the house that is getting the big Autumn clean

I am thinking it is time to clean the mind and try to sort through the 50 gazillion ideas

that are residing in my ever more cluttered brain

I am thinking ideas suffer from the same sort of procreation habits as dust bunnies

and as a consequence I will be rather absent from the blog

and online in general for the next week or so

Of course I have been off to a rather inauspicious start in all this

as I wasted the first few hours painting up the cleaning bottle

didn't use it , in fact didn't even think about using it

but I think it is best to ease into these things don't you ....xx